There has been a lot of talk about MS Dhoni’s place in the ODI team after he was sidelined for the T20I series against Windies and Australia. Moreover, his waning batting skills have come under the scanner. He endured one of the poorest years with the bat and has now played his last international game this year. However, Virat Kohli has quashed all the reports of Dhoni being dropped and doubtful for the World Cup and has clarified that he is still an integral part of the team.

The selectors took one of the toughest decisions of their tenure by dropping MS Dhoni from the T20I squad. Though the chief selector MSK Prasad later went on to say that the veteran was aware of the same and was very generous after he was told about their plans that they were looking for the second wicketkeeper.

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It is nowhere close to true

Ever since MS Dhoni has lost his place from the T20I squad, various news are doing the rounds about his future in the 50-overs format as well. Many are of the opinion that the 37-year-old will need to perform to stay in the team for the World Cup. Virat Kohli though as usual, has come out in full support of the former captain saying that Dhoni continues to be an integral part of the team.

He also quashed out all the rumours surfacing about the cricketer and cleared that nothing is true. “MS is an integral part of the team. In T20s he just passed his place to someone younger like Rishabh. I can assure you as a captain that whatever the media is thinking about MS Dhoni is nowhere close to true,” Kohli said in the press conference after the fifth ODI.

Meanwhile, there were reports of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma agreeing to drop MS Dhoni from the T20I squads when the selectors asked them about the same. The Indian skipper denied all the rumours regarding the same saying that he and Rohit weren’t the part of the decision. “The selector has explained what happened. He (Dhoni) was spoken to before taking the decision. I was not a part of that conversation,” the Indian skipper added.